Monthly Archives: May 2016

Fighting the flu during pregnancy sickens a pregnant woman, but it may also put the fetus at a slightly increased risk for neurodevelopmental disorders like autism later in life. A new study in pregnant mice offers a potential mechanism explaining why: Inflammation alters neurotransmitters and impairs growth of nerve cells in the developing fetal brain.

If pregnant women take antiepileptic drugs, the child can develop autistic traits. The administration of folic acid preparations appears to be a suitable means of preventing this serious side-effect, suggest researchers.

Low birth weight babies are at higher risk of osteoporosis later in life, especially if they are born prematurely, say researchers. Targeting these children with the appropriate diet and weight-bearing exercise can help improve the problem.

An additional blood test for pregnant women accurately predicts which women with high thyroid function are at risk of developing preeclampsia, according to a new study. The findings may help identify high-risk pregnant women and potentially avoid unnecessary treatment that carries the risk of foetal abnormalities.

New research addresses the importance of discussing potential pregnancy and providing pregnancy testing for women of reproductive age before they undergo surgery, so that harm to mother and baby can be avoided.

Creating transgenic mice, while critical to biomedical research, is laborious and expensive, despite improvements since the advent of CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing. Now, biologists have invented a technique that simplifies, improves and lowers the cost of generating knockout mice. They discovered that electroporation can move CRISPR-Cas9 molecules into mouse embryos with nearly 100 percent efficiency, much better than the success from microinjecting Cas9 mRNA and guide RNA. The gene-editing success is also higher.

An important feature for life is what embryos receive from mom and dad upon fertilization. Centrioles, the structures responsible for cell division and flagella movement, are given by the paternal gamete. How the maternal gametes lose centrioles and its importance for female fertility has been an enigma. In a new study, a research team has shed light upon this critical mechanism whose deregulation leads to infertility.

Researchers have assessed and identified possible risk factors for ophthalmoscopic (an instrument used to visualize the back of the eye) findings in infants born with microcephaly (a birth defect characterized by an abnormally small head) and a presumed clinical diagnosis of Zika virus intrauterine infection.

The world’s estimated 60 million refugees, displaced from their homes due to conflict, persecution or human rights violations, may need at least 2.78 million surgeries a year, something thought to be very difficult to arrange in the midst of their upheaval.